Always
by greenleaf-in-bloom
Summary: OotP spoilers! After Percy's...departure, his younger sister writes to him every day in secret. Percy's owls are less frequent. These are their letters.
1. Chapter One

Come Home  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
You only left a few hours ago and already I feel like you've been gone forever. I keep going into your room and looking around at it. I've memorized the few things that you left behind - your picture, a dirty pillowcase, that Gryffindor lamp that Bill gave you when you were twelve. You also left your old prefect badge, and I've pinned it to the paper, because I don't think you forgot it on purpose.  
  
I'm already afraid that I'm going to forget what you look like, or what you smell like. I can't remember what you usually sounded like, I can only remember the sound of your voice shaking my bedroom floor. I can remember running down the stairs and into Ron, who was standing at the bottom.  
  
Mum hasn't stopped crying and Dad went out for a walk before dinner. He hasn't come back yet. Fred and George aren't talking or anything - I went by their room on the way to yours. Ron is in the cellar, and I think he's just in shock. Bill found me in your room and left in a hurry; I think he started to cry when he saw that you didn't bring your lamp.  
  
And me? I don't know if you care, but I'm crying too. This is awful, Percy. Please come home. Come home soon.  
  
Love, your sister,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
I know it's only been a day since my last owl, but I can't stand this anymore. I slept in your room last night, I couldn't help it. Seeing Pig without any reply at all hurts, I guess. Maybe I'm in denial, but I keep hoping you're going to walk in any minute now and give me a big hug like you do after I used to have nightmares. Bill went to get groceries because Mum hadn't thought to. She didn't sleep last night, and cried instead, I could tell because she had black circles under her eyes and red around the rest of them. I don't know if Dad came back last night, but he still hadn't when I went to sleep. Ron was the one who woke me up; they'd searched the rest of the house but no one, not even Fred or George, could stand to come in your room without danger of crying.  
  
I don't know why you're doing this to us all. I can't believe that you honestly think all the awful things Minister Fudge is saying are true. You know Harry, Percy! They're making him out to be some sort of madman! After all he's been through, he doesn't deserve all this disbelief. He saved my life, Percy, and I don't think you remember or understand that. If not for him, I would have been dead. And you know what happened in his first year - he stopped Professor Quirrel from getting the Sorceror's Stone. You can't deny any of that. He saved all of us, and he risked his life for us, and you question his credibility. I'd thought better of you. I thought you were reasonable.  
  
And Dumbledore - how could you believe what they're saying about him? How could you? He's the one who's held up the Wizarding World for years now, he fought Voldemort in the old days.  
  
Charlie sent Mum an owl. I don't know what it said, but she started crying again when she read it. I don't think an hour's gone by since yesterday afternoon that she hasn't cried. You're tearing us apart, Percy. I don't understand. Please write to me. I'm afraid for you. You could be a target now that Voldemort's back, whether you believe he is or not.  
  
You said yesterday Dad's got no ambition. Well, I guess that's why he wasn't in Slytherin House, isn't it?  
  
Whatever else you may belive, however cold you have become, I love you always. Come home, Percy, please, before something terrible happens.  
  
Your sister,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
I slept in your room again last night - I guess that's just going to be the way it is from now on. Dad came back just this morning. We're leaving the Burrow. I can't tell you where we're going, but I guess you know where our loyalties lie, even if yours aren't the same. I'm packing the last of your things, but I guess the lamp will have to stay. Dad woke me up this morning, and he hasn't spoken a word except, "Pass the salt, George," since coming back. We had eggs this morning, and Mum started crying again, because she made one too many. Dad ate the one that would have been yours - it was even in your style, poached with no salt and just a touch of sugar on the top. I've always thought that was odd, but Dad ate it just how it was.  
  
When I found out your lamp wouldn't fit, I had to go around to see if anyone else had room. George and Fred almost did, but they were afraid it would break. I haven't seen either of them cry, I think they're just angry at you for doing this to us. In all honesty I can't blame them. I could be angry, but I'm not. The Sorting Hat thought about putting me in Slytherin for the ambition I had then. It didn't, though, because it thought I was more a Gryffindor. It thought you were more a Gryffindor too, Perce.  
  
When I asked Bill if he had enough room for the lamp in his things, he burst into tears.  
  
Please write to us, Percy. Please. I love you, always.  
  
Your sister,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
If the Minister of Magic wants you to put a Locating Charm on this letter, you're welcome to. It won't work. Nothing will. We're here in secret and every letter has to be charmed, and anyway, I always send the letter from outside so it can't track. I've begun to wonder whether you even read these, or whether you throw them into the fire as if they were poison.  
  
I thought you like Cedric, Percy. I really did - I mean, he was only a year younger than you and he was very kind, and polite. Remember in your sixth year how he helped you resolve that argument in the halls? You told me about that, positively beaming that someone else in the school cared about order. Cedric Diggory, you told me his name was. Percy, he trusted Harry.  
  
I can't tell you who is or isn't in the house, but I can tell you that we all wish you had never left. I wish we were still at home too. Then there could be a chance of you coming home. Now there really isn't, Perce, and I'm starting to lose hope that you will before Voldemort attacks. Trust me, Percy, that's going to be soon, and he's going to do it by trying to take out the leaders. Be careful, Percy, please, for my sake.  
  
I wish you'd write back, just once, just a few words of acknoledgement that I'm still here. Without that, I'm not even sure that I am.  
  
I love you.  
  
Your sister,  
  
Ginny 


	2. Chapter Two

Dear Ginny,  
  
I apologize for my absence causing you pain. Even if you and the family are on the wrong side, I still  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
I'm sorry if my leaving caused you pain. I still think I've done the right thing, however, and I wish I could help you to see the truth. I know that your infatuation when it comes to Harry Potter is significant, but you must see beyond that to the truth - he is nothing more than a  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
If the abrupt fashion in which I left home has caused you grief, I wish to apologize. I must make you understand, however, that no matter what Potter has done in the past - however large or small a thing it is - he has changed. I hope you can come to see eye to eye with me on this matter and change your allegiance to the correct side. The Minister  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
I'm sorry if my choices of late have made you and the family suffer. I feel that I've made the right choice, however, because I've finally been able to see past the ties that bound me to the truth. This truth is that the Ministry of Magic is absolutely right in accusing Harry Potter and Dumbledore of  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
I wish I could say that this letter held good news for your cause. The truth, however, is that I feel that I'm on the side that's going to be right in the end, and  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
I love you, but I can't come home. I'm on the side that sees the truth, and the truth is an important thing to me. I hope you can come to understand that, and I will be more than glad to help you if you ever wish to follow Minister Fudge. I'm sorry if you're suffering, but someone in the family had to act, to see sense, and perhaps now more will follow. I hope that this is the case. I was told as a child it was my responsibility to set a good example, and I feel that what I have done is just that.  
  
Your brother,  
  
Percy 


	3. Chapter Three

Dear Percy,  
  
I cannot remember ever feeling the way I feel before. It's like being furious and miserable, being hopeful and lost, all at the same time and together, if all of that can be one emotion.  
  
I want you to know right now that there is nothing you could say to make me betray Harry, Dumbledore, or the rest of our family as you have. I never had thought it of you, had never even considered it. The Minister, much as I know you must hate me when I write this, is an incompetent fool, and he's making out that the people who have saved our world over and over are liars instead of saviors. I don't know whether it was the lure of power or the taste of deception that led you to actually believe this, if you do, but I think it's time that you saw truth.  
  
You have known Harry since he was a first year at school. You have watched him grow up and go through hardships of a kind you will never have to face. You have watched him find his family among us. You have seen him make choices, and sometimes mistakes. You have seen him do the right thing time and again. You have seen him win the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor. You know, and have known, that he regards you as a part of his surrogate family as much as he regards the rest of us. And now, you have betrayed him.  
  
I don't want to know why.  
  
I love you.  
  
Your sister,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
I suppose that by now you've heard about what's happened to Harry. And I don't have to ask whose side you're on. You were always a stickler for rules, and authority, and now you're believing everything Fudge is coming out with. I can honestly say I have never been more disgusted with you in my life, and I can only hope I never will have cause to feel this way farther again.  
  
Today, we started to make our current residence more habitable, more home- ish. We're not the only ones here, although I certainly will not elaborate, as you probably give these letters to the Minister before you burn them. It's difficult work, but it helps me to take my mind off of you and Harry, the two people I'm most worried about now.  
  
I remember a time when I was unable to imagine someone I knew dying. But I've had times when I thought Harry or Ron were dead, and now I feel almost as if you are. The Percy who always comforted me when I had nightmares the summer after my first year certainly seems to be gone forever. I can't imagine that Percy saying the things you said, or leaving me alone, to cry.  
  
I hate lying when Bill asks me if I'm all right. I hate it. But I have to tell him yes, because I don't want him or anyone else to be any more broken, any more miserable than you've already made us.  
  
No matter what you say or think or do, I will always love you. And I will always be  
  
Your sister,  
  
Ginny 


	4. Chapter Four

Dear Ginny,  
  
If what you are saying is correct, then the boy who you once knew as your brother is dead.  
  
Potter is dangerous and I hope for your sake that you will keep away from him.  
  
I hope I can leave my past behind me as I help Minster Fudge fight to keep order in our world.  
  
And no matter what you say, I could never hate you.  
  
- Percival Ignatius Weasley  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
The tearmarks on your letter were an especially nice touch, I think. So you are giving the letters to Minister Fudge, and heÕs drafting your responses, eh? Well. Perhaps now you can be convinced that youÕre being used.  
  
Stop this nonsense, Percy. Stop writing these awful things. Stop being a toy for the blind side. You think youÕre seeing the truth, but itÕs nothing more than a curtain to hide the truth from you.  
  
IÕm your sister. YouÕre my brother. And you arenÕt dead.  
  
Love,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
Do you think that what youÕre seeing is the truth? If IÕm looking at a curtain, what are you looking at? If your brother Percy would never do these things, who am I? And if Minister Fudge makes suggestions for how to let you see the truth, what of it? He is trying to gather support, and he thinks I am in a key positions to gather many people who are trying to destabilize the world.  
  
- Percy  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
If you canÕt tell youÕre being used by now, think about it. YouÕre blind as a bat right now. Open your eyes. YouÕre a tool.  
  
Love, your sister even if youÕre ashamed of it,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
Did you know that bats have sonar that is quite more advanced than what people call true vision? It can tell perfectly accurate distances, and canÕt be fooled by sight.  
  
- Percy  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
Bats donÕt see colors, and you obviously canÕt tell that Fudge has shown his. The colors of darkness and blood.  
  
Love,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
IÕm not sensing any darkness or blood from here. If VoldemortÕs back, where are the attacks? Where are the casualties?  
  
Back at Hogwarts now? I note that the colors of your house are the colors of blood and gold.  
  
- Percy  
  
Dear Percy,  
  
May I note that you were once part of Gryffindor House and was proud of it? And how would you know what the Gryffindors colors are? You canÕt see colors. YouÕre a bat.  
  
So now youÕre telling me that you wonÕt believe that VoldemortÕs back until people start to die? Real smart, Percy.  
  
I canÕt believe the MinisterÕs tied us down with such a useless DADA teacher! Percy, damn it, sheÕs making sure people donÕt know how to defend themselves! If the Minstry is afraid of Dumbledore making an army - and yes, many of us know that this is why youÕve stuck us with Umbridge - then why are they refusing to train us in DADA? Are they planning to use Dark magic against us if we ÔattackÕ, and are merely making sure we wonÕt know how to deal with it?  
  
This is the most ridiculous crap IÕve heard in my life. If Dumbledore wanted to mobilize an army to take over the Ministry, he would have already and the Ministry would be his. But he doesnÕt. Why do you think heÕs continually refused to take the MinisterÕs position.  
  
Love,  
  
Ginny  
  
Dear Ginny,  
  
I used to think I could see. I used to think that red and gold were colors that meant bravery and pride. Now I know that sight is more of an illusion. The Ministry knows what it is doing, it knows what Potter is, and Dolores Umbridge is a delightful woman who follows age-appropriate guidelines and will not take nonsense from her students. I heard that Potter got into trouble with her today.  
  
- Percy 


	5. Chapter Five

Dear Percy -  
  
Yes, Harry told her the truth about what had happened to Cedric. What's IyourI verson of what happened to him, Percy? Do you think he just dropped dead? Do you think Harry killed him? If you took one look at his body, you could tell he died by the Killing Curse. So who are you accusing?  
  
And I can tell you what's going on at Hogwarts - an IunbiasedI version, shall we say?  
  
Percy, I'm not sure if I've given up on you yet, but I do think that you're hopelessly mired in the side that's trying to let Voldemort take over again. Prove me wrong.  
  
Love,  
  
Your sister  
  
Dear Ginny -  
  
I've already got an unbiased account from inside Hogwarts. If you don't know what happened to Diggory perhaps you had better be a bit more perceptive. And the IsideI? You make it sound as if we are on opposite ends of a battlefield.  
  
- Percy  
  
Dear Percy -  
  
Why don't you tell me what you think happened to Cedric? Or aren't you sure? And the only way that I could say we're on opposite ends of a battlefield would be if you're on Voldemort's side, because I'm certainly not on that end. After everything that's happened to our family, I can't believe that you can actually have no doubts in Fudge's word.  
  
Love,  
  
Your sister 


End file.
